Dark Eyes of London by Philip Cox Read Free Book Online Page B

point. She wouldn’t believe you. At least I will get it over and done with.’
    He paused a moment, as if to say something, then reconsidered. ‘Thank you, Carol, that will be all for now.’
    ‘Sir.’  Carol closed down her notebook, and left Fleming alone in his office. Fleming looked at his watch, tutted, and started to browse through the first folder on his desk.
    He had not got very far when the door opened, and Ashley Merchant walked in.  Fleming had known Merchant for many years. They worked together when they were both much less senior; and, although they had both remained at the same firm, their career paths had taken different directions.   Fleming had risen to the heights of CEO, and Merchant had also progressed.  Despite their history, Fleming despised her. The feeling was mutual: Fleming had a theory that her ambition was greater than she pretended, and that she envied his position of authority. Her appearance was always the same: her short not quite cropped hairstyle had remained the same for many years, as had her preference for wearing tweed suits.
    Today was no exception: Merchant walked in and sat down on the one of the two chairs the other side of Fleming’s desk. As she sat she adjusted her tweed jacket and smoothed down her tweed skirt. She was holding a plastic folder, which she placed on Fleming’s desk. He tried to suppress a shudder: ghastly old lesbian , he thought.
    ‘The Khan situation is resolved,’ she said.
    ‘Oh? How has it been resolved?’
    Merchant took a sheet of paper out of the folder and passed it over the desk to Fleming. She said nothing.
    Fleming put on his glasses and read the paper. Then he looked up at Merchant over the top of the paper. ‘I’ll say one thing for Vine: he’s thorough.’
    Merchant said nothing.
    Fleming passed the report back to Merchant. ‘Very thorough.’
    She put the paper back in the folder. ‘As I said, the issue is resolved.’
    ‘Are we covered?’
    ‘Of course.  There will at some stage be a report in the newspapers, maybe on television, but things are taken care of.’
    ‘Good.  Good.’ He took of his glasses and laid them down on the desk.
    Neither of them said anything for a moment.
    Fleming wanted this woman to leave his office as soon as possible, so he hoped the answer to his next question was no.
    ‘Is there anything else?’
    ‘Just one matter,’ she said, taking another sheet of paper out and passing it to Fleming.
    Fleming put his glasses back on and stared at the paper.  It was an Excel spreadsheet. He glanced up and down the columns.
    It was apparent to Merchant that he did not understand what he was looking at. She said, ‘It’s a breakdown of which personnel have access to the Restricted Files.’
    ‘I see,’ he said, looking down the columns again. ‘And I assume they were all authorized to do so.  Had the right passwords?’
    ‘That’s the point,’ Merchant said. ‘Third column along, bottom line.’
    Fleming looked down the column, and then looked up at Merchant. ‘But this means...’
    ‘Precisely.’
    ‘But how did it happen?’
    ‘That’s what one thing I’m investigating now.’
    ‘This personnel number: who does it relate to?’
    ‘Look at the next column.’
    He looked over to the next column and made a peculiar hissing noise, which even Merchant found unsettling.
    ‘What do you want me to do about it?’ she asked.
    Fleming studied the spreadsheet for a moment, and then looked up at her again.
    ‘What do you think?’ he said.

 
    Chapter Ten
    The inquest was over in ninety minutes. The coroner heard statements from Sergeant Green, who reported on the statements given to the police by the witnesses who were also on the platform at the time.  All of them said they had not even noticed Lisa until they heard a scream, a loud bang and a flash coming from the tracks. When they turned to look, the train had already passed.  The platform and carriages had been cleared before the train